CF Bible Study, Romans 9:19-23: The Difficult and Delightful Doctrine of Election

Elliff’s living room, April 23, 2008

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
22 What if God although willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory.
Romans 9:19-23

A Difficult Doctrine

This passage of Scripture teaches very difficult doctrine. Not difficult in the sense that it is necessarily hard to understand. Difficult in the sense that it’s really hard to swallow.

I am persuaded that here Paul is teaching election and predestination to salvation and glory, and especially (because this is mostly what he is defending) election and predestination to hardening, rejection, and destruction. I believe that God unconditionally chooses certain people be vessels of wrath, destined for hell. And from beginning to end, their rebellion, unrepentance, and final punishment are in some sense a result of the purpose and work of God.

That’s a hard truth. And it is especially hard when you stop playing speculative, academic games and understand that it is real and that we could be talking about your dad, or your brother, or your friend, or your child, or you.

So my burden tonight is first to get us to humbly accept this doctrine as true and right. And then, more than that, I want to get us to love it even though it’s hard. By the end of verse 23, I want this difficult doctrine to become a delightful doctrine.

Two Questions

In verse 19, Paul faces an objection to the doctrine of unconditional election that he has presented in verses 6-18. “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’”

There are two questions that are built in to that one question. (1) How can God predestine people to hell? How can He do that and still be just? And (2) why would He do that? Paul answers both. My prayer is that the answer to the first question will cause us to accept the doctrine and that the answer to the second question will cause us to love the doctrine.

How Can God Do It?

How can God predestine people to destruction, harden them to the truth and then justly punish them? If someone is raped, you don’t accuse them of fornication or adultery. They could not help it. What right does God have to do what He is doing in choosing people for death, hardening them, and sending them to hell?

Paul’s answer to this question is straightforward, tough to accept, and undeniable true. God can do that because God is God. He is the creator, and the creator has a right over the things that He creates. Verses 20-21: “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not he potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”

If someone who makes pots decides to make one pot for use in the oval office of the White House and another pot to hold dirt in a garden shed outside the White House, the clay doesn’t rise up and say, “Why are you doing this to me.” You don’t even say that. You say, “He’s the guy who makes the pots–and it’s clay. He can do what he wants.” Any creator has a right over what he creates.

God’s right is even greater. He is infinitely and eternally self-existent. Forever, there was nothing but Him. And for no other reason than His own good pleasure, he created the universe, and people. Nobody told him to–and nobody told Him how to–He just did. In light of that, it is ludicrous to for us to question what He does with us. He is the ultimate creator. Our job is to close our mouths, get on the ground, and worship Him.

This is a tough truth, but it is a true truth. God is God. And if He desires, He has every right to take your dad, or your child, or friend, or you and make a vessel of wrath.

Why Does He Do It?

But why would God do that? Maybe He does have the right to. But that does not mean He has to. In fact, it means He does not have to. So why not save everyone? Is this just the working out of some sort of cosmic vindictiveness?

Paul tackles this question next. And it is in the answer this question that the difficult doctrine becomes a delightful doctrine. The first half of it is laid out in verse 22: “What if God although willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” There are a couple of things we need to notice before we get to the meaning of this text.

First, God does prepare vessels of wrath for destruction. The wording is clear. Some will say that because God is not explicitly said to do the preparing (whereas He is in verse 23 for “vessels of mercy”) that the vessels of wrath actually prepare themselves for destruction. I do not think that is what is being said here. We must be honest with context. And the context is, “. . . does not he potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” So we have to acknowledge the truth of this.

Second, Paul seems (at least indirectly) to put the responsibility for hardening on those who are hardened. You can feel it in the language: God “endured [them] with much patience.” Though the hardening is in a way God’s work, it is the human’s fault. They are the ones who are rebelling. No one was ever hardened, rebellious, and unrepentant who did not want to be. We must be clear that, while the emphasis in this passage is God’s overarching work, the emphasis of most of the Bible is responsibility of fallen humanity. These vessels of wrath are willing sinners and deserve destruction. God is not compromising His justice.

Last, we need to change the translation of a word in this verse. The NASB says, “God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath . . .” Many commentators agree that it really should be translated, “God, because he desired to demonstrate His wrath . . .” The real meaning is almost opposite.

Now we are in a position to see the first have of Paul’s answer. God prepares vessels of wrath for destruction, and then he “endures them with patience.” Why? “Because He desires to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known.” Paul is saying that God predestines some people to destruction and then He waits to fully destroy them so that He can make known His power in their life and so that, because of their accumulated unrepentance and sin, His wrath in the end all the more cataclysmic.

Pharaoh is a good example. God rejected him and hardened him and waited to completely destroy him so that He could bring ten plagues upon him and so that his wrath at the final judgment will be all the greater. All that happened with Pharaoh was “to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known.”

A Delightful Doctrine

That is still a difficult doctrine. Verse 23–the second half of the answer–makes it a glorious, and delightful one.

We know that God predestines some to wrath and does all that He does with them in order to demonstrate His wrath. But the real question is why does He do that?

Verse 23: “And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory . . .” In other words, God’s ultimate purpose in demonstrating His power and wrath is to make known the full riches of His glory to us.

By preparing vessels of wrath for destruction, God is setting a stage for us to see and know and love his power and wrath and justice. And even more than that, He is setting a backdrop against which we can more clearly see and know and love the riches of His grace. Without this–without the possible hardening and final punishment of your dad, or brother, or friends–you will not know the riches of God’s glory. With this, you will delight in Him forever. In the end, it is a glorious and beautiful doctrine.

So you should weep and pray for those around you who may be vessels of wrath. Paul did this for the Jews in chapters 9 and 10. But, above that, you should rejoice because you know the final purpose–to make known the riches of God’s glory upon vessels of mercy.

Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com

 

CF Bible Study, Romans 9:14-18: The Freedom of God and the Vindication of His Righteousness

McDonald’s basement, April 16, 2008

14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this reason I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
Romans 9:14-18

What I am aiming for tonight is a realization that God’s utter freedom (particularly in election) is a huge part of what makes Him God and what makes Him glorious. And that when He acts according His free nature to uphold His glory in this way, He is righteous.

In the end, I want us to realize these things so that we will live our lives on our faces in joyful, humble worship.

Is there Unrighteousness with God?

Last week we addressed this question: How is the word of God to Israel being fulfilled? Paul’s answer was that there is a physical Israel based on lineage and a spiritual Israel based on God’s free election. The spiritual Israel is the true Israel. And God has never failed in His promises to them. “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (v.6).

Paul referenced two Old Testament stories to support his point–the story of Isaac and Ishmael, and the story of Jacob and Esau. In both of these stories there are two brothers who are legitimate descendents of Abraham and should have received the promises. Yet in both cases, because of nothing other than His own desire, God chose one child and not the other. Isaac, not Ishmael. Jacob, not Esau.

And Paul knows what you are thinking. “That’s not fair! God can’t just arbitrarily choose to save one person and reject another one. You yourself said, Paul, that there is no partiality with God. That seems like partiality to me. It is not fair, not just, and therefore it is unrighteous.”

So Paul faces the problem. “What shall we say then? There is no injustice [probably better translated "unrighteousness"] with God, is there” (v. 14)?

“I Will Have Mercy on Whom I Have Mercy”

The first part of the answer comes in verse 15. “May it never be! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion’” (v. 15).

That is a strange answer. It does not seem like an answer at all. It seems like a repetition of the problem. Surfacely, Paul sounds like he is saying, “God is not unrighteous in having mercy on whom He will have mercy because He has mercy on whom He will have mercy”–and that is not an answer, it’s a cop-out.

I struggled all week to get behind this. We know that Paul is giving a defense for why God is not unrighteous because he says “for” or “because” at the beginning of it. Yet it does not look like a defense at all. It looks like a simple reiteration of the facts that made us ask the question in the first place. What is going on here?

I believe the missing link can be found in the Old Testament context of the words God spoke to Moses. What Paul says here is not the product of a quick flip through the Bible to find a place where God affirms His freedom. It is the product of long, thorough meditation on the Old Testament passage and its context. So let’s go to Exodus 33 and find part of the reason verse 15 is a real defense of God’s righteousness and not just a cop-out.

God’s Glory and the Freedom of Mercy

In Exodus 33, God is fed up with Israel because of their idolatry with the golden calf, and He decides to remove His presence from them. But Moses pleads with Him on their behalf and God relents. Then Moses says, “I pray You, show me Your glory” (v. 18)! And God answers, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion” (v. 19, quoted in Romans). 

Where did that last part come from? What does “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious” have to do with the goodness and name of the Lord? I think the connection is this: the absolute freedom of God is a huge part of the glory and the name of God. No one created God, and no one tells God how to be God. He is not bound by anything. He is infinitely and eternally self-existing. That is His name and His glory.

In other words, God is telling Moses, “Do you want to know My name? I will proclaim it to you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

There is another place that makes this possibly even clearer. Moses is standing in front of the burning bush and God commands him to go deliver Israel from the Egyptian. But Moses says, “The Israelites will ask me who sent me. They will ask me, ‘what is His name?’” And God’s answer is amazing: “I AM WHO I AM.” The utter freedom of God is the name of God. It is His glory.

God’s Righteousness Stands: He Is Upholding His Glory

The freedom of God is a huge part of the glory of God. That is the first link to understanding Paul’s defense of God’s righteousness. The other link is something that has been assumed all through Romans: the nature of true righteousness is conformity to the character of God and upholding the glory of God. Mankind is unrighteous because they “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). Therefore true righteousness is conforming to and upholding the glory of God.

We can now see Paul defense of God’s righteousness. God is righteous in His free election because He is acting out of His nature and upholding His glory. That is the essence of righteousness. For that reason, rather than causing the righteousness of God to totter on the edge of a cliff, unconditional election sets it in bedrock. I AM WHO I AM. That is God’s glory, and, by unconditional election, He upholds it. Therefore He is purely righteous.

So Paul draws the inevitable conclusion. “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (v. 16).

God’s Glory and the Freedom of Rejection

But what about unconditional rejection and hardening? Is God unrighteous in it? Again Paul’s answer is no. And he supports it in verse 17. “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this reason I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.’”

Again, this is a very strange way of defending God’s righteousness. How does quoting this passage answer the objection?

It answers the objection because it gets at the reason for and result of God’s hardening and rejection of Pharaoh–His own glory. This is very similar to verse 15. Paul is saying that both God’s unconditional mercy and His free rejection sustain, uphold, and proclaim the glory of God. And since true righteousness finds it essence in those very things, when God acts this way He is righteous.

The righteousness of God in free election stands: He is acting for His glory. “So then God has mercy on whom He desires, and hardens whom He desires” (v. 18).

Worship

Love and protect the unconditional freedom of God. It is the essence of His glory. If you take it away, you take away His glory. So many people try to limit it and tie it to human decision or works. By doing that, they think they are protecting God’s glory and righteousness. “He wouldn’t do that!” they say. “It would not be righteous and it would not be glorious.” And unknowingly, they have removed the heart of His glory and righteousness.

So love and protect it. But most of all, worship God because of it. Have you ever tried to get on the edge of what you can understand about God? I recommend it. Push the limits. Contemplate the infinity, eternality, and absolute independent self-sufficiency of God. You will utterly fail, and that’s half the point. It will develop in you an attitude of quiet worship.

I AM WHO I AM. Love it, contemplate it, and get on your face and humbly, joyfully worship.

Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com

CF Bible Study, Romans 9:6-13: It Is Not as though the Word of God Has Failed

Kolb’s Basement, April 9, 2008  

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.”
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
9 For this is word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;
11 for though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,
12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”
13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Romans 9:6-13

A Gigantically Faithful God

Romans 9 shows that God is faithful, and that He is faithful in ways that are bigger and more glorifying to Him than we can imagine. That is why I love this chapter. It does not just set in concrete the fact that God is true to His promises, it sets in concrete the fact that He is gigantically true to His promises and that He is always true in the way that will most glorify Him.

I think of Romans 9 as a support for every other promise of God in the Bible. I can take it and put it behind promises in Romans 8 about resurrection and inheritance and say, “Yes! God will be faithful, and He will be faithful on a level that is beyond what I expect.” Or, what is closer to the issues I am facing right now, I can look at promises like, “my God will supply all your needs” and “seek first the kingdom of God and all these things [like food and clothing and money and college!] will be added to you” and rest them on the gigantically faithful God of this chapter. You can go to college on Romans 9! You can live, and proclaim the gospel, and suffer, and fulfill all that God has planned for you, trusting in the amazingly true and faithful God that you find in Romans 9.

So my hope is that by the end of our study, we will be resting in a bigger and more gloriously faithful God. Tonight, we will get at the text by asking and answering two questions. First: how is God fulfilling His promises? And second: why is He doing it the way He is doing it?

How Is God Fulfilling His Promises?

Last week we saw the problem. The ethnic Jews are promised to be the chosen people of God forever. Yet they are anathema. If we can find no resolution to this incongruity, we must conclude that God is impotent and unfaithful and we must become atheists because an impotent and unfaithful God is not God at all.

Paul looks at and deeply acknowledges the problem in the first 5 verses. And then he says, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed.” So the question is, “Why not, Paul? Why can we say that God’s word has not failed? If He is not saving the Jews, how is He fulfilling His promises?”

The answer is simple, but unexpected and bigger than we first imagine. “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” In other words, there is an ethnic Israel based on physical descent, and there is a spiritual Israel–made up of Jews and Gentiles–based on the unconditional choice of God. Ethnic Israel is not true Israel. True Israel is the worldwide Israel of God’s free choice.

You can take this statement and put it as the banner over all of the rest of this section. “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” The point is: God has never failed in His promises to the true Israel. So His word stands. He is faithful. He is powerful. And He is God.

Paul roots this in the Old Testament with two stories that point toward God’s purpose to create a true Israel founded on unconditional election and not physical descent.

Isaac and Ishmael

In Genesis 12, God promised to make a great nation out of Abraham and to give him and his children eternal blessing. In chapter 15, He repeated the promise by making him look at the stars and saying, “So shall your descendants be.”

So Abraham turned to his childless and barren wife Sarah and looked at his body, which was too old to bear children, and concocted with Sarah a way to fulfill God’s promise. Their answer was Hagar, Sarah’s maid. Through her, Abraham got a child and he brought him before God and said, “Look God! I’ve fulfilled your promises! Oh that Ishmael might live before You! He will be my heir.” And God said no.

Why? Because Ishmael was not the child of promise. He was not the child God had chosen.

Again, later, in front of Abraham’s tent, God reiterated His promise (this is what Paul quotes in Romans), “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah [not Hagar!] your wife will have a son.” And what God promised came true. Isaac was born.

Now we have two children. Both of them were descended from Abraham and should have inherited the promises because they were given to “you and your descendants.” And what did God say? “Through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” But what about Ishmael? Why Isaac and not him? For this simple reason: God chose one and not the other.

So Paul looks at this story and he sees a picture of what God is doing in salvation history. God is creating a true Israel based not on physical descent (both Isaac and Ishmael were children of Abraham), but on His gracious choice. “It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise [those whom God has chosen] are regarded as descendants” (v. 8).

Jacob and Esau

But here the Jews listening to Paul’s argument say, “But I know why God chose Isaac and not Ishmael, Paul, and it disproves your point. First, Ishmael was the son of a Gentile mother. Therefore God did not accept him. Second, Isaac was better than Ishmael. So God chose him over the Gentile’s son.”

So to prove that there are no other factors involved in God’s election of true Israel, Paul takes us to the story of Jacob and Esau. “And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac . . .” (v. 10)

Immediately, Paul has debunked the first objection-that having the wrong mother is a reason for God’s choice. Jacob and Esau were twins, from one time of intercourse, by the same parents, born almost at the same time. Yet one is chosen, the other is not.

And then he discredits the second objection-that works are the basis of God election. “For though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad . . . it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” God announced his choice before any works were done so that He might prove that His choice is totally unconditional.

So again, Paul looks at this story and sees a picture and parable of what is happening in all of God’s saving plans. God is calling a true Israel from all nations, not because of lineage or works, but because of His choice. Therefore the word of God has not failed. He is just bringing it about in a way that different and bigger than it seemed He would.

Why Has God done it this way?

Why is God fulfilling His promises in this way rather than the way it looked like He would? Why is creating a true Israel based on His free election and not simply saving the ethnic Jews? There are two reasons. They come from verse 11: “. . . so that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls . . .”

Reason 1: So that His eternal, vast purposes would stand.
“. . . so that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand . . .”

God’s purpose from the beginning has been a worldwide church, resurrected and glorified to the praise of the glory of His grace. His plans from eternity are bigger than the Jews. So He is doing it this way so that His bigger, broader, more glorious purposes would stand.

Reason 2: So that His purposes would stand because of Him alone for His glory alone.
“. . . not because of works, but because of Him who calls . . .”

God is fulfilling these promises this way so that no one can come before Him and say, “You saved me because you had to. I was a Jew. And I kept the Law. So You had to save me.” That would derogate from the glory of His grace. Therefore He is doing it this way so that He will get every bit of glory because His grace is absolutely free and unconditional. “. . . not because of works [or ethnicity], but because of Him who calls . . .”

Ultimately the reason God is completing what He has promised in this way is that this way is bigger and more glorifying to Him than any other way. That is what this chapter shows. God is massively true.

Live on Romans 9. Go to college on Romans 9! Look at this chapter and believe that God is faithful–faithful in ways that cause His eternal, vaster purposes to stand, and faithful in ways that most magnify His name.

Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com

 

 

Don’t Kill Your Horse: The Godliness of a Good Diet and Physical Exercise

Near the end of his short life, the missionary Robert Murray McCheyne allegedly said, “God gave me a horse and a message. I have killed the horse and I can no longer deliver the message.”

 

Few Christians grip the importance of taking care of their body. They seek to preach the gospel and magnify Christ, but they abuse, neglect, and eventually kill the horse that God has given them to do it with. In their thinking, an out of shape and neglected mind is a tragedy. But an out of shape and neglected body is something to joke about.

 

I firmly believe that to neglect the body is both a tragedy and a sin. God has given it to us for the purpose of glorifying Him. If we throw it away, we are spurning His gift and failing to do what He has commanded with what He has given. That is sinful. Your body is not your own. It is for the fame of Christ. “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). While Paul wrote this specifically in reference the sin of immorality, the point still stands: you have been redeemed in order to glorify God. Therefore glorify God in all things—including your body.

 

In fact, by neglecting the body, we harm almost every other area in life in which we strive to glorify God. We cripple our worship, service, and ability to preach the gospel. It is like a filter. Everything comes through it and it affects everything. Let us repent of this sin and begin to seek the glory of God in this area.

 

The two most basic steps are a good diet and physical exercise—every day. It does not have to be hard. It just takes discipline and self-control, both of which are commanded in Scripture. And it is not a waste of time. It is godly. Of course it must be done in moderation. Too much of an obsession with diet and exercise with the wrong purposes in mind is not godly (1 Timothy 4:8). But I see far less of that extreme than the one I am working against.

 

Don’t kill your horse. That is my thesis. In doing so, you will kill your ability to preach the message of Christ and to glorify God. Rather, care for it, nurture it, and keep it in shape, and thereby further the name of Jesus.

 

Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com

 

CF Bible Study, Romans 9:1-5: What about God’s Promises to Israel?

Kolb’s basement, April 4, 2008

1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 9:1-5

An Overview of Romans 9

Romans 9 is here to answer one question: What about God’s promises to Israel?

Two undeniable facts make this question important and unavoidable. On one hand, the ethnic Jews were the chosen people of God and it was promised that they would be the chosen people of God forever. “They are Israelites” (v. 4), with everything that entails. On the other hand, if we believe what Paul has said so far in Romans about Jews and Gentiles all being condemned and salvation being by faith in Christ for all nations, we must conclude that, as a nation, ethnic Israel is going to hell. They are accursed (anathema), separated from Christ (v. 3). They are not the chosen people of God. They are not receiving what God has promised them.

Those two facts are not compatible. God has promised Israel eternal blessing, and yet they are anathema. For God to remain faithful and powerful (for God to remain God), we have to reconcile this problem. That is what Romans 9, and 10 and 11, is about.

Not All Israel Is Descended from Israel

The answer in chapter 9 is simple: It is not those who are physically descended from Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob that are true Israelites; it is those, from all nations, that God sovereignly and eternally elects.

“But it is not as though the word of God [His promises] has failed,” Paul says in verses 6 and 7. “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: ‘through Isaac you descendants will be named.’”

Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. God’s promises were to Abraham and his descendants, but only one (Isaac) received them. Why? Because it is not those who are physically descended from Abraham that are true Israelites; it is those that God chooses. The same is true of the children of Isaac. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (v. 13). This is the answer that Romans 9 gives.

What is amazing, and what this chapter is pushing toward, is that God has sovereignly chosen people from all nations to be true Israel. “He . . . called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles” (v. 24). Not only does Paul’s answer reconcile the problem, it reinforces and deepens the main point of Romans–salvation for all nations. God is fulfilling His promises, but it is in a way that is beyond what we expect.

Why Does Romans 9 Matter?

Many of you may be thinking, “Why does this matter? Why should I care enough about the outcome of God’s promises to the Jews to spend the next several months studying it? Quite honestly, it sounds boring and unimportant.” My goal tonight is, by looking at the first 5 verses, to convince you that Romans 9 is an indispensable link in the Christian faith. Without it, we have no Christian faith.

No Romans 9, No God

God made the following promise to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 17:7:

“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you [the Jews] throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants.”

And He is not! God has covenanted with the Jews to be their God forever–and He is not their God. They are anathema. So we have two options. Either God is not powerful enough to fulfill what He has promised, or He is a liar. Both of which mean He is not God.

Therefore, if there is no resolution to this problem (no Romans 9), we must all become atheists. We have an impotent, unfaithful, unreal, cultic deity. You must throw away everything you have ever known of Christianity, and you must especially throw away Romans 8. How can you trust a God to raise your bodies, and glorify you, and sustain you through suffering, and work all things for good who doesn’t keep his promises to Israel. You can’t. God is not God. You are an atheist.

That is why Romans 9 is indispensable. If you don’t have it, you must either throw out God and become an atheist or throw out Romans and become a Jew. Let’s consider more carefully verses 1-5 to grip how much Paul felt the necessity of an answer the problem.

If you are a Jew in Rome, reading what Paul has written about the condemnation of Jews and Gentiles and the salvation or all nations, you are probably thinking, “Paul, I don’t believe you care about the Jews and I don’t believe you understand the implications of what you are saying. If it is true, God is unfaithful.” Verses 1-5 are simply an affirmation that he does care and that understands and feels deeply the implications of what he is saying and the need for resolution.

“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.” In other words, “Believe me. I care about the Jews!”

“For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Here we discover how deeply Paul felt the tension between what he is saying in Romans and the promises of God in the Old Testament. “I could,” he is saying, “(if it were necessary) wish myself to be anathema in place of my brethren because ‘they are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen’ (v. 3-5).”

To put it another way, the problem was so real to Paul that if there were no other answer to why God does not seem to be fulfilling his promises (no Romans 9), he could have wished himself to be accursed so that the Jews would be saved and God’s promise would be fulfilled. If there was no answer, he would have wished to provide the answer himself.

That is the importance of Romans 9. Paul felt this deeply. Without it, we are atheists. God is not powerful, not faithful, and not God. My prayer is that our study of this chapter will deepen our assurance that God is powerful, and faithful, and God, because we see how beautifully He is fulfilling His promises in creating a true Israel of all nations.

Anguish for Sinners in a Chapter about Sovereignty

I have one more lesson from to draw from these first verses. It is subordinate to what I have said so far, but it is so convicting and helpful to me, that I cannot leave it out.

I find the first two verses of Romans 9 to be shocking, convicting, and exciting, all at the same time. Why? Because they are the first two verses of Romans 9. Let me put in other words: Romans 9 is a chapter about the sovereignty of God in having mercy on whom He will and hardening whom he will, and in the first two verses, Paul is weeping for a nation that God has hardened.

That convicts me because I have an imbalance of theology. I have too much of the sovereignty of God in hardening and punishing sinners, and not enough of the compassion of Paul for perishing people. Too often, when I see hardened, lost sinners, I think, “God’s doing it. So why should I care.” That is coldhearted and unbiblical.

May God give us more of a balance in this area. There is a true mingling of sovereignty and compassion. Let us get more of the heart of God and more of the heart of Paul–so that we can both love and defend and rejoice in God’s hardening and condemning of sinners and, in the same chapter, weep for those who are hardened and condemned.

Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com